Not everything is downloadable. Quite often songs are only available on disc. Especially getting songs from like Zoom and Sunfly. I still buy discs (when that's the only format a song I need is available or basic new releases like from Zoom) then rip them to computer.

I, like Lonman, don't discount discs either. My first priority when asked for a song that isn't in my library is to check the various download sites that I use and if it's available there, I will buy it and download it right then and there. If not, I will log it down and look for it at home to see if it's available on disc.

_________________The Line Array Experiment is over. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Rig one gets everything as needed, that means downloads and CDGs as they become available. This is my main rig

Rig two gets mostly CDGs, as Its primary use is at private parties or when I have a double booking. I will buy downloads for this machine if its needed, but this rig doesn't need to be updated as often as rig one.

Getting CDGs also depends on who's asking and my needs. I'm not above spending $15 for a CDG with one unique song on it for my regulars... it keeps them coming back, and I usually take their e-mail to let them know when the CDG comes in. If I feel it's a good fit for my systems, I will buy them then as well. And If I see a good quality CDG that's discounted, I'll pick it up then too. Many of the legal KJs on here aren't shy about owning multiple copies.

I am an ODB-KJ (Only Disc Based). I am NOT computerized. I do possess several downloaded files (which I purchased from SBI), but they had all been converted to BIN Files so that I could convert them to Disc Format (with SBI's fore-knowledge and permission) for use at my shows (when I was still running the occasional show).

As a footnote, the only reason I had to purchase the song tracks in downloadable format from SBI in the first place was because I had some sort of problem playing their customized discs on my JVC player (so I had to purchase the downloaded format and do some reverse-engineering). SBI even provided me with a blank disc that contained a pre-printed index of the song tracks I ordered (on the disc surface), so that I could burn my downloaded purchases to that/those disc/s.

I feel badly for you guys that are Disc based when all Manus go to downloadable only. Since it makes sense to convert everything to MP3+G rather than to swap back and forth with Downloaded and Disc, it will be time consuming to convert. So many Discs do not have song titles in the file and they will have to be entered manually. SC used to piss me off because many of their discs are like that. Of course, one can continue to carry a CDG player and CD Cases, risking damage, I just wouldn't.

This is an edit. I forgot about ROXBOX. If I remember correctly, when converting, it will go out and look for the titles and insert them. I may be wrong I may be right. (There's a song in that)

_________________You can never argue with a crazy mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mind ----B. JoelI have great faith in fools; My friends call it self-confidence ---- E.A. PoeI became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity ----E.A. PoeI don't know, I don't care, and it doesn't make any difference! ----A. EinsteinDouble bubble, toil and trouble ----W. Shakespeare & Walt DisneyI hate it when I get on FaceBook ----MeKaraoke might be Groundhog Day ----?Of All the Martial Arts, Karaoke Inflicts the Most Pain ----?

I feel badly for you guys that are Disc based when all Manus go to downloadable only. Since it makes sense to convert everything to MP3+G rather than to swap back and forth with Downloaded and Disc, it will be time consuming to convert. So many Discs do not have song titles in the file and they will have to be entered manually.

I'd never trust an online data base -- seen too many mistakes (song title wrong, attributed to the wrong artist, miss-spellings, bad punctuation, or the disc you want ain't there.) I spent too much work in the early days getting every line in my songbook correct to start mixing in erroneous lines and see the sorting messed up.

The worst part of ripping discs to files is the file naming. I used a big cheat: I let the file names become the song numbers I already had in my book. Give the ripper your disc # as the root name for all files from the same disc, and probably all the rippers append the track number automatically. It's a huge time saver during the ripping phase.

Side effect is that you still need your book forever, because you have to look up the song # to know which file to play. And the hosting programs that require an importation of file names into their own index will not be prepared to deal with file names that are numeric, like "SC8203-04.cdg" or "214-04.cdg".

But one odd benefit is a form of security. If you don't put the book itself on the same hard drive as your song files, the drive could be stolen but the thief won't be able to use it, 'cause all they'll have is numbered files without any title They'd have to play each file, see what song it was, and then manually rename the file before going on to the next one, thousands and thousands of times over.

I feel badly for you guys that are Disc based when all Manus go to downloadable only. Since it makes sense to convert everything to MP3+G rather than to swap back and forth with Downloaded and Disc, it will be time consuming to convert. ......

Why do you feel badly??? Even tho I haven't done a show now in about 2 years, I am still an ODB KJ. It's not that difficult for me to buy a downloaded Karaoke file and convert it to a BIN file and then burn that to a disc. On the other hand, it really doesn't make any sense at all for me to convert my 14K+ song tracks all to MP3+3 Files. I don't have the time or energy to do that, and since I very rarely host a show now, why should I?

Cueball, .It would seem to me that for the price of a laptop you could have a complete back up your files and it would be a lot less to lug around with you when you do a show. Give a list of the discs that you actually have to one of those guys who have hundreds of thousands of songs that are already named properly on their hard drive. They can easily transfer the songs that you own to your hard drive for you in a lot less time than it would take you to rip and name each song individually.

Cueball, .It would seem to me that for the price of a laptop you could have a complete back up your files and it would be a lot less to lug around with you when you do a show. Give a list of the discs that you actually have to one of those guys who have hundreds of thousands of songs that are already named properly on their hard drive. They can easily transfer the songs that you own to your hard drive for you in a lot less time than it would take you to rip and name each song individually.

What on Earth would be easy about manually selecting 14k individual files (that's [Ctrl] + [right click] 14,000 times) embedded in a folder or across multiple folders and scattered among 100k other songs? It would take a good two hours a day for 140 days to do that. It might be faster to rip the discs! Certainly less work, since you just start a disc, walk away, and come back later to find those tracks done.

Not to mention it means going to a pirate for help, getting them to do hundreds of hours of free work, and then probably settling for the lowest quality rips at only 128 bps and inheriting noise artifacts in all the graphics.

Let's just say that Cueball has 1000 Sound Choice Spotlight discs, okay? Now let's say that his friend has all of those same discs on his hard drive in one folder. He hooks up Cueball's new laptop to his hard drive and drags his entire Sound Choice folder to Cueball's laptop's hard drive. Goes to sleep and everything is transferred by the time he wakes up. Each disc has it's own folder with the corresponding 15 songs in it. Piece of cake.

I have never once heard a karaoke singer complain that the song must have been ripped at 128, instead of 320, and that is why I sounded like crap in a crowded karaoke bar on a Friday night. Most karaoke singers will sound just as badly regardless of the bit rate of the MP3 that they are singing along to.

Let's just say that Cueball has 1000 Sound Choice Spotlight discs, okay? Now let's say that his friend has all of those same discs on his hard drive in one folder. He hooks up Cueball's new laptop to his hard drive and drags his entire Sound Choice folder to Cueball's laptop's hard drive. Goes to sleep and everything is transferred by the time he wakes up. Each disc has it's own folder with the corresponding 15 songs in it. Piece of cake.

We have to consider that not all SC discs have the same tracks. A lot of sc discs were often distributed, then pulled off the market due to lack of proper licensing. Reissued with two or three replacement songs.

_________________To be fortunate enough to derive an income from a source as fulfilling as karaoke music has got to be as close to heaven as we can get here on earth!

Yes there are some discs that were made by Sound Choice that were re-issued at some point in their existence and they might have a few different songs on them than the original disc with the same number. If that were the case in a handful of instances; Cueball could rip those particular songs himself if need be. The number of those songs would be quite small and getting 98% of you songs done in one shot would be far less time consuming.

Cueball, If you're not hosting I understand staying pat with CDGs and an occasional download.

I and most of us hosting seem to be Computer based. To me it just happens to be a cleaner way of doing business. The appearance of clutter is much less and to me a quicker more efficient way of utilizing the rotation. I definitely would not want to use Manu CDGs because of the possibility of damage and if I did use CDG copies of Manu CDGs I'd always worry that PEP/SC would be in the audience and name me in litigation forcing me to prove my innocence in a legal setting, hence why I went through with a FREE Audit. They waived the fee. It was Skype'd and they used a Forensic Thumb Drive sent to me which I placed on my USB port. I guess they wanted to see my files, because maybe someone did a snitch job on me. I don't know. Still, it was FREE! I had nothing to hide and my Karaoke Laptop is just that. Nothing else ever going on it. Not even email.

_________________You can never argue with a crazy mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mind ----B. JoelI have great faith in fools; My friends call it self-confidence ---- E.A. PoeI became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity ----E.A. PoeI don't know, I don't care, and it doesn't make any difference! ----A. EinsteinDouble bubble, toil and trouble ----W. Shakespeare & Walt DisneyI hate it when I get on FaceBook ----MeKaraoke might be Groundhog Day ----?Of All the Martial Arts, Karaoke Inflicts the Most Pain ----?

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